The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr Laurent Kabila, was fatally shot by a bodyguard in the presence of generals he had angered by sacking, Belgium's foreign ministry said last night.
Foreign Minister Mr Louis Michel told Belgian state radio network RBTF that Kabila's death was not a coup d'etat but rather "an argument that descended into violence".
Kabila was "dead, killed by his own bodyguard," who had "apparently fired two bullets" into him, according to a statement Michel made on Belgian television. The information came from "two reliable sources," Mr Michel said, according to his spokesman Mr Michel Malherbe.
The shooting occurred "in the presence of generals" from the Congolese Armed Forces, Mr Michel said. The foreign minister was not immediately able to give further details nor indicate who was now in charge in Kinshasa, another spokesman, Mr Olivier Alsteens, said.
In a separate interview with the Belga news agency, Mr Michel said that "all eventualities are currently being studied but an evacuation of Belgians from Congo (the DRC) by the (Belgian) armed forces is not envisaged at the moment".
The news agency later said one of Kabila's top military aides, Col Eddy Kapend, had taken power in Kinshasa, at least temporarily.
The officer, who had earlier ordered army commanders to take control of their units and called for the population to remain calm, wanted to avoid a power vacuum, the agency said, citing a DRC source in Brussels.
The DRC, backed by Angola and Zimbabwe, is currently involved in fighting off a rebellion backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
Belga cited its source as saying Kabila was probably killed by the deputy defence minister, Col Kayembe, whom he had just fired, along with other senior military officials.
The officials were sacked for their handling of the conflict in the DRC, Belga's unnamed source said.
Kabila had apparently given an order to his son Joseph to arrest Kayembe, who reacted by pulling out his firearm and shooting the DRC president, the agency said. Joseph Kabila and several others in the room at Kabila's official residence were believed to have been wounded, it added.
The source agreed with the Belgian foreign minister, saying the incident was not a coup but a situation "that went wrong".
According to Belga's source, the minutes of shooting heard around Kabila's Marble Palace came from clashes between soldiers backing Kayembe and units loyal to Kabila.